I am a designer and developer and content strategist. I use my experience as a magazine art director and web editor to help publishers, marketers, non-profits and self-branded individuals tell their stories in words and images. I follow all of the technologies that relate to the content business and try to identify the opportunities and pitfalls that these technologies pose. At the same time I am immersed in certain sectors through my content practice and am always looking to find connections between the worlds of neurology, economics, entertainment, travel and mobile technology. I live near the appropriately-scaled metropolis of Portland, Maine, and participate in its innovation economy (more stories at liveworkportland.org. A more complete bio and samples of my design work live at wingandko.com.

MakerBot, The Next Generation: Replicator 2 Is The Finest Desktop 3-D Printer Ever

I have been following MakerBot, the Brooklyn 3-D printer company, since they started in 2009. Desktop 3D fabrication has seemed poised to revolutionize all kinds of creative endeavors, from Etsy crafts to animation to industrial design.

But the early iterations of MakerBot’s 3D printers, the Cupcake CNC, The Thing-o-matic and the original Replicator all produced what looked like low-resolution objects. Think jpg images sized up to reveal all of their jagged-edged glory. It was charming—in a lo-fi way—but not quite a revolution.

The Replicator 2 that the company announced yesterday may change all that. The 100 micron resolution of the print layers turns the corner from being able to produce prototypes to actual products. Unlike previous models, curved edges are now smooth and require no special sanding or finishing. It may be a bit of a leap, but you could say that Makerbot is breaking the “retinal” threshold with the Replicator 2. Or, maybe, the tactile threshold?

MakerBot’s devices “print” objects by heating special plastics that harden on impact, and drawing with them, one layer at a time, to build up an image in space. What makes the Replicator 2 unique is that these layers are now 100 microns thick—about as thin as a sheet of printer paper. So, goodbye jaggy stair steps, hello smooth slides.

Watch the video above and see the kinds of things that can be made with simple CAD software (including the company’s own, new MakerWare) and the new printer. And if you really want to drink the Kool Aid, I refer you to this gonzo MakerBot Operator Manifesto that co-founder Bre Pettis posted a on the tech blog Boing Boing:

Where we’re going, there are no limitations: create your working flux capacitor by glueing MakerBotted components together for installation in your DeLorean.

Compete with the industrial machines. With the MakerBot Replicator 2′s 100 micron layer resolution you can create models that will look like they were made on a refrigerator sized machine that costs 100 times the MakerBot Replicator 2.

Make the unreal real. Use your MakerBot to manifest unicorns, dragons, or a functional sonic screwdriver.

Resist buying things that you can make on your MakerBot Replicator 2. There is no deeper nerd cred than MakerBotting frames for your glasses.

Optimize the world. That contraption to hold your microscopes glass slides together in the dishwasher is just waiting for you to design and MakerBot it.

Repurpose everything. The springs in pens and motors pulled from old technology can be used to create the replica of that V8 supercharged hemi you’ve been lusting after.

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